I usually install PHP applications (Joomla, Drupal, php forums) in dedicated server using different distirbutions , but mainly Debian an CentOS. I don't know if I shoud chown the files/dirs to root, to apache's user. Sometime I have to give special privileges to all users for they to upload files, that's not my doubt.
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If you upload files to that directory with FTP, you should chown it to the FTP user. If Apache needs to write to this directory, you should chown it to the Apache user. If you do none of these, then it doesn't matter as long as the Apache user can read from the directory.